Earlier today, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb confirmed that Dane DeHaan is portraying Harry Osborn in the superhero sequel. Sony Pictures has issued a press release that also confirms Jamie Foxx has joined the cast as the villainous Electro. Jamie Foxx also revealed a few tidbits about the character in an interview, which you can check out below, along with the official press release.

"Electro is a great character. I met with the director, Marc Webb, I met with Andrew Garfield, and we talked. I think Electro will be an exciting character to play because he's a genius electrician-type person, and he gets the short end of the stick from the whole world, and the next thing you know he turns it on."

Dane DeHaan will join the cast of the next installment of The Amazing Spider-Man alongside Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Shailene Woodley as Columbia Pictures prepares to begin production on the next chapter of the blockbuster franchise, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, and Hannah Minghella, president of production for the studio.

The screenplay is by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner based on a previous draft by James Vanderbilt. The film will be directed by Marc Webb and produced by Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach.

The casting of DeHaan as Harry Osborn was confirmed this morning in a tweet by Webb (@MarcW) who wrote "Meet Harry Osborn. So excited to have him on board. @danedehaan."

"Dane is an exciting and extraordinary young actor and he is a fantastic addition to our cast."

The new film in the Spider-Man saga is set for release in 3D on May 2, 2014. Production will begin in early 2013 in New York.

Webb, Garfield, and Stone previously teamed on this summer's blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man, which has taken in more than $751 million worldwide.

DeHaan caught moviegoers' attention with his performances in four 2012 releases: Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Lukas Haas; John Hillcoat's Lawless, alongside Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Jason Clarke; Bradley Rust Gray's Jack and Diane, with Juno Temple and Riley Keough; and one of the year's biggest sleeper hits, the adventure thriller Chronicle, directed by Josh Trank. He began his film career with director John Sayles and actor Chris Cooper in Amigo.

DeHaan next stars in The Place Beyond the Pines alongside Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. In addition he will star in Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot, with Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, about the fate of the West Memphis Three; and John Krokidas' Kill Your Darlings, with Jack Huston, Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Foster, and Kyra Sedgwick, set in 1944 amidst the Beat Generation.

Mr. DeHaan first came to industry attention with his portrayal of Jesse in the third season of the critically applauded drama series In Treatment, starring alongside Gabriel Byrne. This was followed by a guest arc in the fourth season of the popular horror series True Blood.

In 2010, he received an Obie Award for his performance in Annie Baker's The Aliens, directed by Sam Gold. The Rattlestick Theater production was cited as "Play of the Year" by The New York Times. Mr. DeHaan made his Broadway debut in with American Buffalo, Robert Falls' 2008 staging of the classic David Mamet play.

@narrator His entire attitude is based on the circ*mstances surrounding the character at the time, you're referring to a series of comics that span far more time than the first movie.

In Amazing Spider-Man, Peter is dealing with being basically an orphaned kid living with relatives. He then has to deal with his uncle's death, and the inherent guilt that builds from that he is the one who let the guy go, who ultimately killed Uncle Ben. All this as a young adult, he wasn't being a douche, he was in a very tough place, his attitude was perfectly placed, he then misdirects the anger from himself to the guy who killed his uncle and this is why for most of the movie even when he has the full suit, he is still just Spidey the vigilante and not 'your friendly neighborhood Spider-man'... that change only comes once he realizes the responsibility his power gives him... after the bridge incident somewhat is where he begins to grow out of the vigilante phase... it's as true to the character as they have gotten, also... between the comics and the cartoons, the one thing that people forget is that while Parker was very intelligent and somewhat of a geek, pre-spidey transformation, he was a bit clumsy but his nerdiness was overplayed by the need to show that he was a geek, which was represented by him being bullied, being clumsy and basically following every nerd trope in the book.

Having a skateboard, standing up to bullies and being a pissed off teenager when going through as much as his character goes through, doesn't make you a douche, it makes you a human being. And that's why his portrayal is far better than Maguire's.... it's not just his acting too, it's the writing, you have to remember he didn't write the script. But IMO it's the closest representation of Peter Parker in feature films.

I also like that they took the liberty of having him steal the material he adapted the webbing from instead of creating it as that would make him too much of a super genius and was not very plausible for a highschool kid.. or rather would have been too much fantasy all at once.

@thedude-abides I guess for me, I'm not looking at it as a typical film. I was annoyed earlier last year when so many people were crediting Obama with getting Osama. Yes, he gave the go ahead, and it ended up being the right move, but it was the years of frustrating work by the intelligence community, not one man's signing off of the mission, that nabbed the bastard. I read ZDT stays apolitical, and gives us insight into that leg work. I don't give a damn about how award worthy it is, or really who actually stars in it, I just think that story will be fascinating.

@dan1 That's true. I suppose that's why I call it the unofficial start of movie season.

I'm just not a fan of Bigelow's. She's made three decent movies in a 25-year span, in my opinion. If Kyle Chandler and the success of the Hurt Locker are the main selling points of this film, that's not a good sign in my eyes. I'll see it like I did Hunger Games just so I can have an opinion, but I'm dreading having to sit through it for over two and a half hours.

@dan1 Yeah, I'll see it just because of him, but I think it'll be the worst role he's chosen in a while. He's got three more coming out next year to make up for it, though -- the untitled Terrence Malick movie, Only God Forgives, and The Place Beyond the Pines -- so that should more than make up for it.

But to answer your question, I've got Anna Karenina this week, Hitchc*ck and The Hobbit next week, that piece'a sh*t Zero Dark Thirty on the 19th, and the Christmas Day Double Feature: Les Miserable and Django Unchained. All this backloading of quality films at the end of each year for the sake of awards potential is wearing me thin. It's too much at once.

@dan1 Ironically enough, I did create a separate account a while back, around the time I stopped commenting. My goal was to give the same opinions for which I am renown, but to see if, because they weren't coming from me, people still took exception to my perspective. In total, that experiment lasted about 5 minutes.

@dan1 I've been watching season 2 lately to get ready for season 3 and there are soooo many moments like that - particularly if you have read any of the books. They really have handled the introductin of new characters well too. Not quite like the book but that would be a bit tricky for a tv show.

@skywise@ejk1 I thought it was hilarious how in Storm of Swords, there is a Jon Snow chapter of pretty much nothing but Snow and Ygritte F*cking like rabbits haha. There was some mythology thrown in for good measure, but I thought that was great.